BATON ROUGE – LSU’s sports teams combined for a score of 81 in the release of the NCAA’s Graduation Success Rate data that was distributed on Thursday.

The 81 percent is up one point from last year’s total of 80 and continues a trend that has seen LSU’s scores steadily improve since the inception of the GSR in 2005, when the school posted a score of 67 percent.

"We, at the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes, are very pleased that LSU's overall graduation success rate for all student-athletes has grown from 69 percent in 2008 to 81 percent in 2013 which is the highest graduation success rate since its inception in 2005,” LSU assistant vice chancellor and executive director of the Cox Communications Academic Center Kenneth Miles said. “This monumental accomplishment can only happen when all stakeholders are on the same page. Our collective approach sets the expectation from the point of recruitment to matriculation to graduation."

"All of this is by design. It is not accidental. We tell all prospective student-athletes that you come to LSU to win championships, but more importantly to graduate with a degree. Both are expected and attainable. We accept nothing less than excellence and if you decide to choose less then LSU is not the place for you."

Other LSU sports with scores in the 80-89 percent range include: women’s track (85) and women’s swimming (88). LSU’s football score of 74 was above the national average of 70 percent.

The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The rate holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.

Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution’s GSR cohort.

The most recent Division I Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering classes from 2002-2003 through 2005-06. The NCAA began compiling these figures with the entering freshmen class of 1995.